US Calls for International Observers at Burma By-elections – The Irrawaddy
January 23rd, 2012
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22902
BANGKOK—A US delegation fronted by Sen. John McCain and Sen. Joseph Lieberman will request that the Burmese government allow international observers to oversee April by-elections, which, if deemed free and fair, will almost certainly see the US remove some sanctions on the Burmese government.
“Obviously we will have to look carefully at the process of the elections,” said McCain, who conceded that Burma’s reforms in recent months—including the release of several hundred political prisoners—are “a dramatic change in policy and behaviour in as short a time as a year ago,” he said.
McCain confirmed that the delegation, which arrived in Burma on Sunday, would ask Burma’s government to allow international observation of the April by-elections, in response to a question about the issue from this correspondent. (more…)
Is it ‘Burma’ or ‘Myanmar’? U.S. officials start changing – Christian Science Monitor
January 22nd, 2012
Senators Lieberman and McCain after speaking to journalists in Bangkok on Saturday (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
BANGKOK, THAILAND – Burma or Myanmar? As the country’s military-backed government races headlong into reforms aimed at ending its long international isolation, US officials are changing their tone. For starters, they are beginning to use the government’s preferred name for the country, “Myanmar,” after two decades of sticking with “Burma.”
“We have visited the Philippines, Vietnam, we are here, we are going to Myanmar tomorrow morning,” said Sen. John McCain, opening a press conference given by four US senators for journalists in Bangkok on Saturday afternoon.
It may seem like a small point, but in the subtle world of diplomacy this is heady stuff. It would seem to signal US recognition of the changes afoot in Myanmar and a willingness to work with a regime it has shunned for decades. (more…)
China Remains Key Despite Burma’s Western Focus – The Irrawaddy
January 17th, 2012
BANGKOK – Leadership changes and economic challenges facing China and the US this year will impact how far and fast Burma goes with its nascent political reforms.
A total of 302 political prisoners were freed on Friday with another 128 still in jail, according to Burmese government figures. Some have criticized the amnesty as incomplete, but it made international headlines and resulted in elated crowds greeting freed prisoners outside jails across Burma, as some of the country’s iconic dissidents emerged from detention.
In response, the US said it will appoint an ambassador to Burma for the first time since the bloody crackdown on student demonstrations in 1988. Leaders of these protests were among those freed last week, after spending many of the intervening years in jail.
However, it remains to be seen how far Burma’s reforms go and what the impact of geopolitical rivalries will be on Burma. Simon Tay, author of Asia Alone, a study US-Asian relations, said that Burma’s reforms are perhaps “an attempt to woo America and wean itself off China, rather than genuine attempt to reform domestic politics.” (more…)
Calming ‘irrational exuberance’ over Burma – The Irrawaddy
December 22nd, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22700
Burma President Thein Sein pictured at the 2010 ASEAN/EAS summit in Hanoi, when he was Prime Minister under the military junta (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
ABU DHABI – Three weeks after U.S. Sec of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Burma, the U.S. says it “will be prepared to take further steps” provided the Burmese Government “keeps moving in the right direction”, according to a U.S. State Dept. spokesperson.
During her visit to Burma, the first to the country by an U.S. Sec. Of State since Burma was made a military dictatorship in 1962, Sec. Clinton announced a number of initiatives that the United States plans in Burma. These include increased assistance for civil society programs to support microcredit and health programs; a resumption of counternarcotics cooperation and operations to recover missing U.S. military personnel from World War II; and support for an expanded UNDP mandate in the areas of health, education, and micro-finance, as well as assessment missions by international financial institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
“We are currently taking steps to move forward on all of the actions that Secretary Clinton noted during her visit”, added the spokesperson, in an emailed response to questions about U.S. policy after the Clinton visit. (more…)
US-China rivalry to dominate Bali summit as Clinton gets set for Burma – The Irrawaddy
November 18th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22489
BANGKOK—The weekend’s Asia-Pacific summits in Bali will be dominated by a growing US-China rivalry, part of which revolves around Burma, with Hillary Clinton set to visit the country next month.
Burma’s Government has been granted its wish to hold the Association of Southeast Nations (Asean) chair in 2014, two years ahead of schedule and one year before the country’s next elections, due in 2015. This step-by-step rehabilitation continued today, with US President Obama announcing that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Burma next month. (more…)
Burma in the crosshairs as US, China & India Jostle for Asian Influence – The Irrawaddy
October 11th, 2011
Kurt Campbell speaks at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok on Monday (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22236
BANGKOK—Discussing what he described as early stages of change in Burma, a senior US diplomat on Monday promised his country “will match their steps with comparable steps,” as expectations grow that Burma will release some of the country’s almost-2,000 political prisoners in the coming days.
Burma’s new National Human Rights Commission published an open letter on Tuesday, in which it “humbly requests the President, as a reflection of his magnanimity, to grant amnesty to those prisoners and release them from the prison.”
If the release happens, the US is likely to relax or end some of the economic sanctions levied against senior Burmese officials and business cronies.
Commenting on Burma’s recent decision to suspend operations at the US $3.6 billion Chinese-built Myitsone Dam in war-wracked Kachin State, Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said this development is one of several that “demand closer attention,” confirming that the US is “looking forward in the course of the next several weeks to continuing a dialogue that has really stepped up in recent months.”
Campbell termed the recent discussions between Burmese President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as “very consequential,” and described the president as “a serious interlocutor.” (more…)
Cables describe Than Shwe culture of fear – The Irrawaddy
September 7th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22031
BANGKOK — Amid speculation about a power struggle in Naypyidaw between “reformists” such as Burma’s President Thein Sein and “hardliners” such as Vice-President Tin Aung Myint Oo, recently released US diplomatic cables provide a portrait of the man believed to still wield the balance of power in the military-dominated country: Snr-Gen Than Shwe.
The apparent onset of a factional contest is seen, some say, in developments such as the rebranding of the old Myanmar Human Rights Body (MHRB) as a human rights commission and the recent offer of amnesty to Burma’s political exiles. In contrast, recent appointments, such as that of Maj-Gen Soe Shein as head of the country’s military intelligence, suggest that Than Shwe maintains a decisive influence behind the new institutions.
According to accounts drafted by US officials based in Burma, last year’s election was less about reform than about ensuring that Than Shwe’s successor did not subject him and his family to the fate he imposed on Ne Win, the former military dictator who was put under house arrest by Than Shwe in 2002. (more…)
Burmese Gov. said that NLD could take part in election – The Irrawaddy
July 21st, 2011
Burma’s Foreign Minister told the Cambodian Ambassador that Aung San Suu Kyi’s party would be allowed run in the 2010 election. Leaked US cables highlight divergences between Western and ASEAN views on Burma, with Hun Sen sounded-out as a possible interlocutor with the Burmese junta.
Boeung Kak lake in Phnom Penh, where thousands of residents have been driven out to make way for a Chinese-backed development, adding to concerns about the Cambodian Gov's human rights record (Photo: Simon Roughneen
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21732
BANGKOK — In a meeting with Scott Marciel, the then-US ambassador for ASEAN Affairs and current ambassador to Indonesia, Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said “that the Burmese FM told the Cambodian ambassador recently that elections will be held in May 2010 and that 10 political parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s, would be allowed participate.”
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), the party that won Burma’s previous election in 1990, only for the military to ignore the result, boycotted the 2010 election, partly due to the ban imposed on Suu Kyi from participating.
In any case, according to Burma’s state-run media, the NLD was officially proscribed on Sept 14, 2010, almost 2 months before the Nov 7, 2010 vote, which produced a landslide win for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in an election widely dismissed as rigged. (more…)
US cables show taboos in Thailand-Burma relations – The Irrawaddy
July 19th, 2011
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21720
BANGKOK—More recently-released US diplomatic cables have shed light on Thailand’s relationship with Burma as perceived by American officials at their embassy in Bangkok.
The documents suggest that despite rhetorical differences, there was continuity of policy both before the 2006-2008 crisis in Thailand—when then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in a military coup—and afterwards when Democrat leader Abhisit Vejajjiva took over power.
The cables provide accounts of various US officials, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, discussing various aspects of Thailand’s foreign policy with Thai lawmakers such as Thaksin Shinawatra and outgoing Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya. (more…)
US Delay Means Burmese Must Wait on Oil Payment Disclosures – The Irrawaddy
April 19th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21130
New US rules outlining requirements for oil, gas and mining companies to disclose payments made to foreign governments, including Burma, have been postponed until August at the earliest.
Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall St. Reform Act, passed in 2010, requires publicly traded companies listed on US stock exchanges to disclose how much they pay foreign governments to acquire drilling and mining rights in the given countries. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was scheduled to publish rules governing Section 1504 on April 15, but has now delayed their release.
The SEC rules will likely cover some of the estimated 27 companies invested in Burma’s natural resource sector, possibly including Chevron, China National Offshore Oil Company, Daewoo, PTTEP (Thailand), Total and others. (more…)
